‘That’s Dana eating what you killed’: Matt Brown vehemently against UFC-style promotion being adapted by boxing

TKO Group Holdings — the dad or mum firm to the UFC — formally kicked off a transfer into boxing by selling the showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford this previous weekend in Las Vegas, however that’s merely step one with a lot grander plans in thoughts.

The launch of Zuffa Boxing is coming in 2026 with hopes that the brand new enterprise can use UFC-style promotion to construct a roster, create rankings and championship belts for the fighters below contract. A variety of these plans hinge on the approval of the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act — a brand new legislation proposed in Congress that successfully alters present guidelines that stop promoters from serving as managers and protects fighters from exploitative practices on the subject of contracts, salaries and different key points concerned athletes competing within the sport.

Matt Brown, who spent 16 years competing within the UFC, believes that legislation being accepted clears the best way for a promotion like Zuffa Boxing to probably put a stranglehold on the game, particularly the place the fighters are involved.

“The large difficulty is what they’ve finished with the UFC is that they’ve monopolized the game,” Brown mentioned on the most recent episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “Because of this you see guys we’ll say a few weeks in the past when [Carlos] Prates was begging for his buddy to get a shot within the UFC. You see guys like me, I’m responsible of it, like ‘can I get that $50,000 bonus, please? Please grasp?’ That’s not the best way it’s purported to work and the rationale it doesn’t work that means in boxing — you’ve by no means heard a single boxer in my lifetime beg the promoter for something — due to the factor known as the Ali Act, which the UFC is making an attempt to revise, which truly means destroy.

“It’s not going to be a very good factor. Folks suppose it’s going to be a very good factor however when you’ve a single entity controlling rankings, controlling titles, that’s not a very good factor for boxing.”

The UFC is at present going through a number of antitrust lawsuits primarily based round allegations that the group operates as a monopoly over the game of MMA.

Amid disclosures and discovery supplied by proof, UFC monetary data confirmed that athletes usually obtain between 16 to twenty p.c of the overall income earned by the promotion. That’s in stark distinction to leagues just like the NFL and NBA the place athletes are contractually obligated to earn round 50 p.c of the income, which largely comes resulting from collective bargaining agreements made with unions.

An enormous a part of the argument in opposition to the UFC is how the promotion is ready to lock up athletes in longterm contracts whereas additionally sustaining virtually unchallenged management over the game due to the dimensions and attain of the group. Most of the UFC’s enterprise practices on the subject of unique contracts, rankings and titles wouldn’t be allowed in boxing however that modifications if this new proposal is signed into legislation.

“The UFC is making good cash,” Brown mentioned. “The fighters are making, you would say making thousands and thousands of {dollars} is making good cash, which it’s, however while you’re making another person $100 million and also you’re making $10 million, you’re not making good cash.

“When there’s a single entity with a monopoly controlling who will get that payday, that’s when it turns into an issue.”

Brown factors particularly to a few phrases UFC CEO Dana White makes use of typically when addressing athletes competing within the promotion that he didn’t thoughts whereas he was competing however later realized the troubling actuality behind these phrases.

“When Dana mentioned this isn’t a profession, this is a chance — that’s so unsuitable,” Brown mentioned. “Wanting again on that, I’m like that’s so f*cking unsuitable. Mainly, you’ve a chance to make use of the UFC model that we’re going to offer you to push your self. I can’t hate on it. It created alternative for me. I’m sitting right here doing this podcast as a result of I used to be a UFC fighter, not as a result of I’m probably the most fascinating man on the earth. I get that. Nevertheless it ought to be capable of be a profession. It is best to be capable of make retirement cash in case you’re that good of a fighter.

“Dana additionally makes use of this — you eat what you kill. That’s so false. You eat what we provide you with. If Conor [McGregor] goes out and sells 5 million pay-per-views, he doesn’t get what he killed. He promotes the shit out of it, does all of the media, he doesn’t get what he killed. He will get what the UFC says you possibly can have, which could be $10 million whereas the UFC takes $80 or $100 million. How is that consuming what you kill? That’s Dana consuming what you killed.”

After all, Brown understands the frustration that many boxing followers really feel on the subject of lacking out on among the largest fights within the sport as a result of warring promoters can’t come to an settlement on sure matchups.

However he believes the issue far outweighs the answer on the subject of bringing UFC-style promotion to boxing.

“From the followers, they see all of the bullshit in boxing, and so they’re like ‘they’ll are available in and repair it!’ That’s what they’re making an attempt to pitch to you, that they’re going to return in and repair it,” Brown mentioned. “You’ll get to see the fights you need. However finally while you break it down, there’s no means that the pay stays the identical.

“At present, the best way boxing works and the rationale Terence [Crawford] received $50 million and Canelo received $150 million, which was the [rumored salaries] that I noticed. I don’t know if that’s completely correct, I feel that’s proper. It’s as a result of the promoters are preventing for the boxers. That’s due to the Ali Act. With this revision act, they need what the UFC is. Fighters begging for the promoters or working for the promoters. In boxing, the promoters work for the boxers.”

With Zuffa Boxing poised to launch early subsequent 12 months, Brown can’t say for sure what’s going to occur to the game, particularly if the brand new guidelines proposed in Congress truly will get signed into legislation.

Brown simply is aware of from private expertise that as a lot as he praises the UFC for turning into the most important and greatest fight sports activities promotion on Earth, that doesn’t at all times find yourself benefitting the athletes below contract.

“I at all times need to preface this with one factor: I’m not hating on the UFC,” Brown mentioned. “I don’t hate Dana White or the UFC. They constructed an excellent enterprise.

“It’s not a very good mannequin for the athletes, for the fighters which are working their asses off. That’s actually what we’re. We’re a bunch a preventing canines begging for scraps.”